Basil Maclear

A multi-talented sportsman who represented Sandhurst at rugby, cricket, athletics and shooting, winning the Sword of Honour in 1900.

On returning from military duty at the Boer War, Maclear was selected by Ireland to play against England, the country of his birth, in 1905, scoring one try and setting up two others.

He played a record four times against the 1905 All Blacks – for Blackheath, Bedford, Munster, whom he captained, and for Ireland, the fourth test of his brief 11-cap career. In 1906 he scored an 80-metre try against South Africa, regarded as one of the greatest efforts in the history of Irish rugby in a match Ireland lost 15-12.

A professional soldier with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Captain Maclear was mentioned in dispatches and was killed in action in May 1915 during the second battle of Ypres. His body was never recovered.